Don’t want to lose anus

Hello, my mother has a tumor in her rectum, 6 cm from the anus. The doctor advised her to take a dose of chemotherapy. When she took the first dose, she had an allergic reaction to it, and the epiglottis swelled and the pharynx swelled from the inside. She felt suffocated and unable to breathe. She remained in this condition for 10 days. After two days, we went to the doctor and he told her that Do not take a dose of chemotherapy and leave it on radiation only for 6 weeks to shrink the tumor. After that, an operation is performed to remove it. My mother is 63 years old and also has heart muscle disease. What do you advise me? Is it good for her? I am from Iraq, Baghdad.

How do you get into Mayo? I thought you have to get a recommendation in order to get an apt. ?

Thanks for asking, Colleen. I had a few challenging side effects from chemo-radiation. First, I had some very painful bowel spasms, urgency and pain passing stools starting in the second week. The team prescribed dicyclomine and that did seem to calm the spasms. Ibuprofen was surprisingly helpful with pain overall.

Second, the skin burn from the radiation got very significant over time, reaching a peak the week or two after treatment ended. It got very painful to be in a car, to get in and out of bed, sitting in certain positions... The team had started me on moisturizing from even before the treatment started and about halfway through prescribed an ointment that was Aquaphor with lidocaine and that seemed to help. I'm happy to say that a month after treatment ended, my skin is mostly healed. It's so nice to have smooth, soft butt again! It's encouraging to see the healing capacity of the body.

Sidenote: throughout my treatment, people would tell me how good I looked. I joked to my wife that sometimes I wanted to say, "Oh yeah, wanna see my butt?" (I did not say that...).

Finally the fatigue and brain fog were a challenge as the treatment progressed and continued after for a few weeks. I have a busy job and a couple of times, I just cleared my calendar for a morning of peace and quiet at home. In addition to all the physical symptoms, going through these treatments, we are living our lives in two worlds, including a parallel universe of uncertainty and new concerns and worries. I think it's important to be gentle with oneself.

One instinctual response I had to this whole process was to withdraw internally, somewhat silently and invisibly to those around me. But I needed the internal quiet and space. It reminded my of what I felt naturally and unexpectedly after my mom passed away. A space opened up inside that was where my sadness and need to reflect was made possible. It was a private space that I think it's important to notice and make room for in your life when going through something like this.

Hope this is helpful. It was helpful to write it! Love and encouragement to all on this journey,

Rich

Froedardt Hospital is ok but not in the same class as Mayo. Especially for rectal anal, you would be better at Mayo if your insurance covers

Please do not let that %^&* even touch you. You are the patient and YOU make the decisions as to what you want to do with YOUR life. No body even doctors need to treat people that way Run from this jerky. I too am a anal cancer patient just starting chem & radiation with hopes to be done by Halloween. I started with a positive Cologuard to colonoscopy with an appointment with a rectal surgeon. But each test that they did they came back with the results a month later At the rectal surgeons appointment she asked if she could do a biopsy I said sure lets find out what this is Can back positive but then blamed me in her report that she went over her time allocation. But the cancer was contained at this point Surgery day set up get to the hospital & procedure was cancelled as time had been moved up. Never a call or nothing if such & such time would work. I left her hanging with this game of hers. And then they had the gall to call me & wanted to repeat all the tests I had just done. Hospital was just looking for money the heck with the patient After 5 months of being kept in the dark this poly now is cancer all because of the 1st hospital that kept dragging me along but never keep one informed
Then went to Milwaukee Wi oncologist & radiologist were great gave good % of beating this. Saw the surgeon there And she said go die or a bag. Tried to explain to her my life style would not work with a bag heavy equipment & large animals I work with Did talk to someone that had a bag & was just a piece of cake his life style was pretty quite to my work style And insisted once I had another MRI she could not tell me the results until 12 days later but her nurse could tell me the same results the next day. Boy that made sense
SO I said to heck with this group & went to Mayos What a difference in how a patient is treated. Their goal to help people to live not told to go die I know this is long but PLEASE get yourself to a real cancer center. Mayos in Minnesota ,Sloan Kettenring New York or MD Anderson in Houston
It's your life their can suggest but I made the decisions not some knife happy surgeon and you can do this too I was told I am cranky but I call it standing up for my rights. You are the patient you get to have the final say

DONT LOSE HOPE!!! At the beginning I was told there was a VERY good chance I would have to have surgery, lose that part of my body and have a colostomy bag rest of my life.

Im single mom, early 40s and that news devastated me. I was diagnosed Stage 3 summer 2022. After all my treatments, etc... come March 2023, I had a complete response to treatment. No surgery and no bag. HAVE FAITH. For 2 years every 3 months I have scans and occasional colonoscopy and I am continue to pray it does not come back. And if it does, ill pray again no surgery or bag. Just take it day at atime